


Of Midnight Walks And Talks

by Tuptaju



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith has a crush and Lance is too overwhelmed by the circumstances, Late night snacks, Music, Sabaton - Freeform, but not really, klance, mentions of other members - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-14 22:23:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13017387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tuptaju/pseuds/Tuptaju
Summary: One night Lance heard music in the castle-ship and decided to investigate...





	Of Midnight Walks And Talks

**Author's Note:**

> So, I realized that there's this idea in the fandom that Keith is emo, but come on - nobody limits themselves to just one genre of music. And so, I came up with this ridiculous idea of Keith being a metalhead. (Sabaton for the win, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5_vifEPaAE )
> 
> And ta-da! This happened. It's the longest piece I've ever written, I believe, and I'm proud of myself for managing to write something that has actual plot and is more or less finished.  
> I might continue this with a second chapter, but I've decided to post it as it is, so it wouldn't waste away. :D Please, please let me know what you think and if you find any mistakes I'll be glad to correct them!

It was night, at least according to the Castle of Lions' clocks. And same as every night, Lance was making his way down the corridor for his four-o-clock snack, when he heard a distant sound of- Music, maybe? He kind of wanted to check it out, but his sleep-addled mind decided it didn't give two shits about it until it had had its food goo and so he continued his venture, holding his fan-made blue lion plushie tight and yawning every few seconds.

It occured to him - as it did every few days on his nightly walks - how nice Altean walls were and how pleasantly bright yet not blinding was the light reflected off them.  Another cool thing about the Castle was that he never felt the need to get back to his warm bed as he never really got cold, even though it should theoretically happen as soon as he got out of bed. And he really liked that particular shade of- His train of thought was quickly stopped as he arrived at the kitchen and his habits took over for him, reaching for the cupboard Hunk always put his food in for later.

Man, he loved Hunk. He was always so happy to feed them and cared so much about team. Despite their rocky start at the Garrison, Lance loved the guy. Even if he sometimes wasn't exactly the most finessed paladin, he was still in the top ten of people Lance would like to be stuck in space. Randomly listing off the other nine in his head, Lance teared up a little as he spooned expertly seasoned goo into his mouth, washing it down with some Altean not-exactly-tea-but-will-do from the very same cup he had fights about with Pidge most mornings. Something about how _she should get the green cup_ because she had the green lion or something and no amount of _but Piiidge, I've used green cups all my life_ would convince her to give it up. Oh well, he took it at night as a compromise - she kept the biggest mug on the Castle for herself during the nights, as she didn't really fancy getting refills of whatever she opted to drink during her all-nighters. At least that's what they teased her about, she claimed she woke up often at night and her throat was always dry. Whatever, the point was _he_ had the mug _now_.

Slowly finishing up his meal, he felt himself awaken and he mindlessly rubbed at his eyes, petting the blue mascot with the other hand as he wondered what he'd do now that he definitely didn't want to go to bed. In the meantime he washed and put his plate and mug away for Pidge to use in the morning and slowly made his way back to his room, considering his options. He could visit the bridge and stargaze, but he did that every other night for at least two months and it wasn't as much fun as on Earth where he actually _knew_ the constellations, so he turned onto the next idea - visting Castle's library.

Sure, he couldn't exactly _read_ the books, but the holo pictures were amazing. One night he found a shelf full of photobooks to look at, and they were amazing. When opened, they could project an image onto nearby wall (sometimes the pictures moved!) and Lance enjoyed that for a few long weeks, finding books both about planets they have visited and many, many others that he hoped he'd get to see someday. He especially liked the book with lots of different Balmeras in it, the different Balmeran tribes, whose body colours and clothing style depended, as he found out, on how their Balmera looked.

There was also a book containing creatures vaguely reminding him of noodles with their oblong bodies and long, long limbs hanging loosely down their sides or being flailed around. He'd gladly meet them and ask them to do this Adventure Time flappy arm thing. Lance snickered to himself just thinking about that.

Yeah, the library it was, then. He was a few corridor crossings from his turn, when he heard the music again. This time, he was conscious enough to realize why it was such a weird feeling.

It was Earth music. And it sounded quite epic, some kind of metal if he had to guess. He couldn't really hear it too clearly though, so he did the only thing possible in this situation.

He followed the sound. Straight to the training room.

The only person that could possibly be up and out of their bedroom, spending their time _training, of all things,_ at this ungodly hour would be fucking Keith. Lance sneaked a peek into the room. Sure enough, there he was, wearing his armour in the middle of the night - did he even take it off today? Lance could remember clear as day how he teased Keith for wearing his paladin suit at the dinner and how Shiro told him to lay it off because _at least he does train at all_ and also how he added _he could use some rest, though_ and _overtraining is not good for your body, Keith_ , and then quickly changed the topic to what Allura thought of stopping by another trading moon.

He also remembered how Keith just rolled his eyes and didn't speak again until he finished his meal, bid them goodbye and left in the direction of the training room. As always. Shiro was actually right, both about Lance not working hard enough on close-combat and his core strength and about Keith working himself until he could barely move.

That gave him an idea, after all somebody _should_ tell Keith off and make him go to sleep... Before Lance's mind managed to formulate an actual plan in his head, he managed to hold off on barging in - judging by how it went the last time he did, when Keith was fighting a level 6 droid, it probably wouldn't be the best idea. As a result the other boy got his ass whooped badly enough back then to land him in a cryopod for half an hour when Lance distracted him from the fight and neither of them managed to call the simulation off quickly enough. For now Lance decided to just stand outside the room, listening to whatever music was playing and drowning out the fight's sounds.

To be honest, at this point he'd welcome _any_ music with open arms and while this might not be quite to his taste in normal circumstances, it _was_ vaguely familiar and that was enough.  Lance was almost sure his older brother used to listen to something similar before his exams, whatever it might be. Oh well, it had drums and guitars and - _ooooh_ , the song ended and now he _knew_ what Keith was listening to!

Ever since Lance's brother took history as his major, every mention of II World War he would not only bore any person mentioning it to near death with explanations and overly lengthy stories of battles, but also send them the most relevant song by this one band he could find. Lance himself wasn't that invested in history, but his brother was completely head over heels and having songs about the topic only fueled him further. What was the band called? It must've had something to do with witches, Lance wasn't quite sure what could it be... Cauldron didn't sound quite right.

This song, however, he was quite fond of. Its title was _White Death_ and it was, as a matter of fact, about a Finnish sniper... Guess he always had it in him. As soon as realization dawned on Lance, he waited for the chorus to cut in with his amazing singing skills, the sound stopped for a split second as the music cut off to the next song.

"HEY!" screamed Lance, jumping into the room with no hesitation "FIRST OF ALL, HOW _DARE_ YOU-!" he was cut off by sight of Keith barely blocking the oncoming blow from the simulation droid and a sharp glare the boy send his way. "Oh, right, sorry-" Keith just scoffed and pushed the robot away, jumping backwards himself to steel himself for the next attack.

"Anyway," Lance continued, openly ignoring the ongoing fight. "You have _music_ in here, real _music-"_ there was a sharp _clang!_ as he talked, not really looking at the duel, more focused on his rant and trying to see just where was the music coming from, "and you just skipped probably the only song I know? _Rude._ "

"Lance-" came a grunt from the arena, "I don't exactly have time or patience for-" with a rattle Keith's sword was knocked out of his hand and the only thing he managed to do before getting impaled was to cower behind his shield as he was pushed onto his back "-this right now! _End simulation!_ " he gasped with last of the air in his lungs and let his arms fall to the ground as his shield deactivated and he laid his head down, his hair sticking to his face and floor, slick with sweat. "You moron-" Keith reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, pausing the music. "You almost got me killed, _again._ "

Lance wasn't exactly listening. To be more precise, he stopped listening the moment Keith drew the phone, _phone_ from wherever inside the armor he kept it.

" _You._ You have a _phone._ What the hell, how is this even possible, you have phone _and_ music and you never told us?!" he reached out his hand towards Keith to help him up. " _How?!"_

Keith gave him a blank stare and took the offered hand, holding onto it tight as Lance pulled him up, still looking at him in utter bewilderment, jaw slack, eyes wide and hair completely mussed, sticking out in every direction, looking postively _cute_ and- Wait, _no_. Keith gathered his composure and played for time taking his armour off, hoping Lance wouldn't notice how he got even redder now that he _wasn't_ fighting for his life.

"Uh... I had it on me the night we found Shiro?" Lance rolled his eyes at that.

"Yeah, that's _obvious_ , but I had mine too and it's long dead, sitting at the bottom of my drawer and there's like, no phone chargers in space, so _what the hell?_ " Keith blinked. Once. Twice. Realizing his staring couldn't be much longer excused by being shocked he began stretching.

"Well, Pidge wouldn't manage a week with no tech and the Altean stuff was too hard for her to use right off the bat, so she asked Hunk and together with Coran's help they-" before he could finish, he was brutally cut off by a whine of betrayal.

" _They_ did _what?!_ And nobody told me that we apparently have chargers in _space_?! Hunk, you traitor, how could you- i'm so mad, damn it! Couldn't Pidge at least _mention_ it?!" Lance sputtered angrily, heading to retrieve Keith's bayard, now reverted to its usual form.

"They didn't tell anyone. I mean, I only know because I caught Pidge with her phone one night, when she was writing her translation app for Altean texts and even then she didn't want to share." That was one hell of a fight that actually ended only after Hunk, who was fortunately passing by, got involved and told them both off, giving his own charger to Keith for keeping. No way was Keith sharing _that_ story, almost losing a fight to Pidge (girl was _vicious_ when it came to her tech) was not something he wanted Lance to know about.

"... Will you share? Pretty, pretty please? I _need_ my music back. And my Interne- Oh, there's no Internet in space. Well, my music and photos, and my journal, and... Yeah, can you share?" Lance's question was almost timid and when Keith straightened up from his bend,  he was met with eyes glistening with tears as Lance looked at him pleadingly, holding his bayard out for him to take. How could he say no to these eyes?

"Y-yeah, sure. Want to swing by my room for it?" he offered, taking his weapon back and gathering his chestplate and gauntlets from floor. The gauntlets were quickly snatched out of his arms by Lance in what was probably an attempt to help him carry his stuff back. "Thanks."

"No problem, I'd love to. Stop by, I mean. Thank you so much." Lance smiled brightly at him and wow, was this a _view._ Feeling his blush rise again, Keith ducked his head and scuttled out of the training room, leading Lance toward his bedroom. Not that Lance wouldn't know where to go, since his room was just two doors down from Keith's. Not that Keith cared too much. Or at all.

As they made way to their quarters, Lance decided it was safe enough of a question to ask without having his charger rights revoked. At least, that was what he hoped for.

"Keeeeith..." as expected, he was answered with a sigh.

"Yes, Lance?"

"Why did you skip the 'White Death'?" it took Keith a few seconds to remember what Lance was referring to and come up with an answer that wasn't 'it makes me think of you and it's dumb and not really something that anybody in here would want, especially while fighting'.

"I'm not a fan." _Nice save, Keith_ , he thought to himself bitterly, opening the door to his room and letting his _friend_ in. "Put it all on the desk, I'll have to clean it anyway. And the charger is right beside my bed, so be my guest." Having said that, he headed off to the bathroom, leaving stupefied Lance behind.

Shaking off the mild shock, Lance dropped Keith's gauntlets off and went to have a look at the famed life-saving charger. When he found it, he fiddled with the cord for a few seconds, crouching next to Keith's bed. He still could not quite believethat he'd soon get back his memes, all of his songs and, last but definitely most important, his collection of friends' and family photos.

Pushed by desire to revive his phone he pulled on the charger, trying to get it out of whatever socket it was plugged in.

Nothing happened, so he tugged harder.

When the charger finally budged, Lance lost his shaky footing and plopped down onto his ass. All this trouble got him was a cord, the plug still sitting comfortably against the wall. He furrowed his brow and tried to come up with any ideas on how to deal with the device, slightly distracted by the distant hum of water.

When he sat straight and took a closer look at the wall around the presumed socket he realized there wasn't a socket per se. Instead the charger seemed to simply meld with the wall. Deciding it wasn't worth it to destroy ancient castle just to get a charger these few minutes faster, he replaced the cord carefully and moved to sit on Keith's bed to take a look around the room.

He hasn't actually ever been in there before, since it wasn't as if he was too close to Keith. Sure, they formed Voltron together with the team and got on quite well, being amazing partners despite their quarreling and rivalry, but they didn't really spend time together outside the team activities and meals. Lance has been both to Pidge's and Hunk's rooms, of course (having sleepovers with Hunk was the BEST), he even once spent some time at Coran's study, learning about Altean and Galran history. He knew well that all their bedrooms looked the same - a desk and a bed, separate bathroom and a closet. Having been lived in for a few months now, each of those rooms had a bit of spirit to them - Pidge's was extremely messy, with bits and pieces of tech and notes strewn all around, the only clean place being the small nest she made for herself in her bed, and Hunk's was filled with mementos of different planets, same as Lance's (the mementos themselves were quite different, but the point stood still).

 As far as Lance knew from the few glimpses of Shiro's room that he got (for some reason, Shiro trated his room like a temple, always opting to talk wherever else), even their leader had added a bit of personal touch to his room, mostly filling it with holo maps and photos of the places they visited.

Keith's room, however, was bare. There literally wasn't anything else than standard furniture for Lance to look at as he tried to find anything to occupy himself with, petting his lion plushie all awhile. He was just considering getting up to go through desk's drawers or the closet but the moment he began to stand up, letting the lion land on the mattress, bathroom doors opened and out came Keith, wearing nothing but shorts and a towel on his neck, hair dripping wet, face red from heat and eyes blinking as he stepped out in clouds of steam.

"... You're still here?" he asked, visibly surprised. "Weren't you supposed to just grab the charger?"

"Uh, yes- Actually, how do I pull it off the wall?" Keith looked at Lance's confused expression, down the length of his arm and finally at the charger he was pointing at. Slowly, his face brightened up with understanding and then he grinned, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth. Lance did not look amused by that. "C'mon, buddy, I really need my phone back, especially now that you've given me hope. Please." Lance's face was downright pleading and Keith couldn't really help the feeling of protectiveness that flooded him.

"I know, I know. It's just- I don't really move it around, so I forgot about it," seeing Lance's blank stare he continued, strolling toward the charger, "you see, it's _my_ room. It means that I need to let you in or you won't be able to enter. It also means I'm the only one who decides what sticks to my wall and when. And you can't take anything that's been placed here. Altean magic, or something, here you go." As he reached for the device, wall opened up slightly around it and let him pluck it easily. He handed it to Lance, who took it eagerly.

"How do I connect this to _my_ wall, then?" he asked, smiling, turning the suspiciously normal-looking charger in his hands.

"Uh, just try to plug it into the wall, it should open for you." Keith started drying his hair with his towel and Lance tightened his hold on the treasure he obtained, clearly waiting for something. Keith set the towel on the back of his chair when he figured he wouldn't be able to get any more water out from his hair and shot him a questioning look, for which he received a gleeful smile and was immediately tackled.

"Thank you so much, Keith!" Lance exclaimed, hugging him close, his face right beside Keith's, positively nuzzling his neck "So, so much!" he pulled away, too quickly- Keith didn't even manage to return the hug. "Goodnight, see you at breakfast!" and Lance was out, going towards his room.

"Yeah, goodnight" Keith smiled to himself as the door closed after Lance, smiling to himself. As he combed his hair and pulled it into a ponytail for the night, he realized that there was something that wasn't in his room before he let Lance in. He put the comb away and slid under the bed covers, grabbing a blue plushie and hugging it close as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who read this piece to the end! Please leave a comment and I'll be endlessly grateful. :)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlRiiJ67cTY - here's the song that Lance knew.


End file.
